Resignations of the city manager, assistant city manager and police chief are accepted. Financial details of the departures have not been released.

The Bell City Council accepted resignations Friday from three top city administrators whose high salaries have prompted public outcry — only to offer a defiant defense of the compensation hours later.

City council members emerged from a seven-hour closed-door meeting early Friday morning to announce that City Manager Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams were leaving their jobs.

Officials said the three were not receiving severance packages, but declined to provide any details about the departures or what had been decided behind closed doors. It's unclear whether all the agreements have been finalized. Once they are, one public records expert said, there's no legal reason they should not be made public.

Sources at Bell City Hall said officials, including City Council members, are prohibited under the resignation agreements from discussing the settlement terms publicly.

The Times revealed last week that Rizzo was earning a $787,637 annual salary, Adams $457,000 and Spaccia $376,288. Experts said Rizzo appeared to be the highest-paid city manager in the nation. He had nearly three years left on his contract, and it's unclear whether the city bought it out or whether he agreed to walk away without compensation.

Bell issued its first public statement on the salary controversy Friday, with Mayor Oscar Hernandez calling Rizzo's salary well within reason for the excellent job he did for the city of 40,000.

"Unlike the skewed view of the facts the Los Angeles Times presented to advance the paper's own agenda, a look at the big picture of city compensation shows that salaries of the city manager and other top city staff have been in line with similar positions over the period of their tenure," Hernandez said in a letter to the public.

The League of California Cities, however, released a statement highly critical of Bell and its officials, saying the group was working on possible legislation to prevent a repeat of the Bell salary situation. "We are unaware of any city in the nation where salaries of this level are paid for comparable positions," the league said.

In an interview, Executive Director Chris McKenzie said this was the first time he was aware of that the league had issued such a statement. "That shows how absolutely concerned we are over these practices," he said, referring the salaries paid to Rizzo and his colleagues. "City officials across the state are up in arms over this."

Robin Lowe, president of the league and a Hemet councilwoman, said she found Hernandez's defense of Rizzo's salary "nauseating."

"I have no explanation for the city of Bell right now," Lowe said. "The reaction I've had from elected officials in our organization and across the country has been one of disgust."

In addition to the high salaries for city administrators, four of the five Bell council members are paid close to $100,000 annually — sums significantly higher than the salaries earned at other cities Bell's size.

The League of California Cities and other local government organizations have been battling efforts in the Legislature to reduce state aid to cities and counties, a cause not helped by news of outsize salaries.

Under the settlements worked out by Bell officials and their lawyers, Rizzo will step down at the end of August and Spaccia will leave at the end of September. Adams will also leave at the end of August, after completing an evaluation of the Police Department.

The decision was announced at midnight to a crowd of angry Bell residents who had been waiting anxiously since the City Council began its meeting at 4:30 Thursday afternoon. None of the administrators attended the session.

The crowd erupted in applause after the announcement but immediately yelled out questions about what would happen to the council members' salaries. When their questions were not answered, they shouted, "Recall!"

"Definitely letting go of these three top officials is the first step we need to fix the city," said Cristina Garcia, a member of the Bell Assn. to Stop the Abuse, or BASTA. The group has called for four of the council members to resign or agree to slash their salaries. The fifth council member makes about $8,000, nearly 90% less than his colleagues.

Throughout the evening, several residents complained that the council was taking too long, while others clapped in unison to urge the members to come out from behind closed doors.

"This is outrageous," said Marcelino Ceja, who has lived in the city for 17 years. "They have to hurry up. I've got kids to feed."

Emotions ran so high that the council chamber was briefly cleared. Several residents taunted council members, including yelling, "Rude, rude," when Mayor Hernandez's cellphone rang. Several urged the entire council to resign.